Rising energy costs and the impact of greenhouse gases on the environment have created a growing need for high efficiency vehicles with a low carbon footprint. Inline-wheeled vehicles, such as motorcycles and scooters, offer higher efficiency than conventional four-wheeled cars; however, this efficiency is mainly due to the physical differences between inline-wheeled vehicles and four wheeled cars—e.g., reduced weight, fewer friction surfaces, and reduced drag. Furthermore, many users are unwilling or unable to operate motorcycles and scooters due to the exposure to weather and wind, safety concerns in the event of crashes, and the skills required to maintain vehicle stability during vehicle use.
Solutions to reduce inline-vehicle user exposure to weather and wind have typically been limited to devices partially shielding the driver from the elements (e.g., a windshield) in order to allow the user to use his feet to help stabilize the vehicle during low-speeds. Furthermore, while there have been some solutions to attempt the build an enclosed user cabin for an inline-wheeled vehicle, these solutions either require additional (though smaller) wheels to stabilize the vehicle or do not provide for vehicle stability during all potential and foreseeable uses. Prior art solutions that attempt to electronically stabilize an inline-wheeled vehicle have also failed to provide for resource and energy efficient solutions to maximize the overall efficiency of the vehicle.
Descriptions of certain details and implementations follow, including a description of the figures, which may depict some or all of the embodiments described below, as well as discussing other potential embodiments or implementations of the inventive concepts presented herein. An overview of embodiments of the invention is provided below, followed by a more detailed description with reference to the drawings.